In recent years, various forms of motion assist devices configured to be worn by a user for medical and nursing purposes have been developed. As a control principle for such motion assist devices, a timing matching control for matching the timings of the user and the device is known. See Patent Document 1. According to the concept of the timing matching control, it is expected that the motion assist device is enabled to operate with a timing that favorably matches the timing of the walking movement of the user or is enabled to operate as a rehabilitation device with a motion teaching function by providing an assist force that teaches an optimum motion to the user before the user actually effects a corresponding motion. In the motion assist device of Patent Document 1, a mutually inhibiting model of a neural oscillator is used for generating a movement pattern of synchronization.
According to a motion assist device proposed in Patent Document 2, the motion assist device uses a phase oscillator model using the phase of the motion of the user as an input oscillation of the phase oscillator, and operates by causing a freely selected phase difference with respect of the motion of the user.